Anita Kemi Dasilva is a specialist Obstetrician and Gynecologist with a medical background that extends to Public Health. She is a qualified physician with over 15 years of experience in private practice, where she dedicates her time addressing the needs of expectant mothers and women. Dr. DaSilva also runs a non- profit organization – the Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF) that successfully tackles the issues of gender-based violence, rape and trafficking of young girls and women in communities throughout Lagos State and across Nigeria.
Below is a summary of the interview What Exactly is Rape with Dr. Anita Kemi Dasilva-Ibru
She said that the WARIF organization was founded as a result of the many cases of rape, sexual violence and trafficking of young girls and women in many communities across Nigeria. She said that in her background as an obstetrician and Gynecologist taking care of women and children she had seen many oppressed women across different backgrounds. According to her, the statistics in Nigeria shows that 1 out of 4 girls before they clocked 18 have experienced one sexual violence act or the other.
She defined rape as any form of sexual assault or penetration that is done against a person’s wish adding that it was also a tool of dominance over someone that is vulnerable. She mentioned that according to the Nigerian Law, prosecution for rape was Life imprisonment. As to what could be regarded as willful consent, she explained that consent was an enthusiastic agreement based on an informed decision between two persons that sexual activity will occur.
As to consent in a sexual act, she pointed out that a person under 18 could not give consent, bribery or force; a person under the influence of alcohol did not count as consent while adding that consent could also be given and withdrawn. She revealed that rape survivors were often filled with stigma because the act usually occurs in safe spaces like in the home, in school and the perpetrators most times exist around these environments. She went on to say that rape survivors are often led to feel ashamed and to feel guilty about the act and without an enabling environment most times they lose the strength to speak out.
She disclosed that WARIF had a rape crisis walk-in facility at Yaba which opened Monday to Friday offering free medical care, Counselling sessions as well as Shelter to survivors. While speaking about the need to educate boys on rape she said that statistics showed that 1 in 8 boys were survivors of sexual acts and as such when boys are educated on the realities of rape chances are high that they might grow up to become potential perpetrators. She mentioned the ‘Boys Conversation Café’ initiative at WARIF that was directed towards educating secondary schoolboys.
Through conversations with some of the secondary school boys under the ‘Boys Conversation Café’ initiative, she said that 1 out of 5 boys had shown that they would walk away if they saw a girl being raped. She called on individuals to always pay attention to signs such as; a child avoiding a certain adult, a neighbor becoming quiet when a name is mentioned so as to help reduce the number of rape incidents. In the case of a rape incidence, she said it is advised not to take a bath within 72hours but visit a Rape Facility as it will aid in identifying such perpetrator as treatment and diagnosis will also follow so as to prevent STI’s.
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